


Let the Sun Shine

by evieeden



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Complicated Relationships, Established Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers, M/M, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Nudity, Past Bucky Barnes/Natasha Romanov, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Protective Natasha Romanov, Protective Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov Friendship, advent fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-09-06 10:46:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8747512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evieeden/pseuds/evieeden
Summary: Steve comes home one day to find Bucky sprawled out in the sunshine.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This next advent fic is a Steve/Bucky number. Again sorry that I'm currently posting a day behind, hopefully I can catch that up today, but never mind.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you like this one. It's more of a little moment than an actual story, but I enjoyed writing it.  
> Thanks for reading x

It was a warm afternoon in New York when Steve got back from Washington. He had spent the weekend glad-handing any number of politicians and military generals, all in the name of keeping peace between the Avengers and the policy makers the Capitol and he was glad to feel the faintly stale air of a boiling hot Manhattan summer wash over him after he stepped out of the car Tony had sent to the airport.

Desperate for a shower and a decent sleep, Steve kept his head down as he walked through the lobby and into the private elevator that JARVIS obligingly opened for him, ignoring the gawkers that flocked to the tower trying to spot a superhero.

He dropped his bag the second he got inside his apartment on the floor he shared with Thor when the God was on-planet and stripped off his jacket. Tugging his t-shirt over his head, he walked blindly towards the bathroom when he heard a soft laugh.

Freeing his head from the shirt, he looked over to where the sound had come from.

In front of the open window, lying in a large patch of sunlight, Bucky was stretched out completely nude on his side, like some kind of reclining big cat. His eyes were slits against the bright light and Steve recognised the relaxed look on his face that he usually wore when he was half-asleep.

Light and shadow dappled over his skin and Steve felt the familiar itch in his fingers that longed for pencil and paper to capture the moment.

The laugh was accompanied by a low, feminine chuckle and a slim, bare arm wrapped itself over Bucky’s torso.

So Natasha was there too.

There glare from the sun and Bucky’s body blocked her from sight, but if he squinted in that direction, he thought he could make out a glint of her fiery red hair.

He could make out her voice now, murmuring quietly to Bucky. Satisfied that for now they were okay, Steve carried on his path to the bathroom and shucked the bottom half of his suit before stepping into the shower and turning the water on as hot as he could stand.

He felt better immediately, still tired, but clean at least, and more like himself.

As he scrubbed the last of DC off his body, he considered the little scene out in the living room.

Buck was clearly enjoying the warmth. He had never been able to stand the cold back before the war and 80 odd years of being in and out of cryo had left him plastered against every heater or fire whenever the slightest chill in the air threatened. Summer in New York was going to be good for him, although Steve had no doubt that the instant a heatwave hit, he would be complaining about their skin sticking together.

Natasha was a more interesting issue.

She and Bucky had been incredibly wary of each other when Steve had first brought his long-lost best friend back to the tower after two years of he and Sam chasing him all around the globe, only pausing long enough to take in the sight of various Hydra strongholds going up in flames. Steve knew that Bucky had shot Natasha in the past when she had been working for SHIELD and again when he had hunted both of them down with the Strike team on the highway, but she hadn’t seemed too upset about either of those things until Bucky coming back became a reality, rather than a strong possibility.

It wasn’t really until Bucky had admitted in a halting voice that he thought he had been one of Natasha’s trainers in the Red Room that Steve had finally understood. More so when, both of them sore over a mission that had gone wrong, she had taunted him during a training session that she and Bucky had been lovers.

Steve had frozen in place and then calmly and concisely laid her out flat on her back before walking away and locking himself in the bathroom.

It took him a couple of hours to calm down from Natasha’s taunts, but considering how awful the Russian operatives and then Hydra had been to both Bucky and Natasha, he ended up just feeling relieved that they had found each other and experienced some small measure of happiness in each other’s arms.

Natasha’s confession was then followed by three weeks of her showing up at their apartment and glaring at Bucky. This continued until the day Steve came home to find the pair of them sitting at the kitchen island sharing a pie and chatting in Russian.

After that it was like the tension between the two of them had never existed.

Natasha still dropped in whenever she wanted, occasionally accompanied by Clint, only now she and Bucky were getting on like a house on fire.

Steve would have been worried about what this meant for his relationship with Bucky, only the two former lovers had settled into what appeared to be more of brotherly-sisterly bond…

…even if neither of them felt any compunctions about wandering around each other naked and wrapping their bodies around each other.

It was intimacy, but only that.

As Bucky had reassured him more than once, Steve was the only guy for him. That didn’t mean though that Natasha wasn’t part of their odd little family. So it didn’t surprise him at all to find her wrapped around Buck while he lay in the sunshine, nude or not.

Steve finished his shower, dried off and then threw a pair of sweats and a vest on before heading back to the living room.

Bucky was still in the same position sprawled out in the hot patch of sunlight, his eyes closed and his expression beatific as he basked in the warmth. Steve could see Natasha clearly now as she lay on her side next to his lover, clothed but with bare feet. She was murmuring gently to him, one of her hands rhythmically running over his back, tracing the indents of his ribs and spine.

Without interrupting, Steve sat down and then stretched his body out alongside Bucky’s, his fingers running through the other man’s hair, allowing him to have this quiet moment of warmth and care.

Bucky snuffled at the feel of his body and wiggled like a puppy until he was curled back against Steve’s chest. Steve dropped a soft kiss on Bucky’s neck and Natasha smiled at him over his body.

“Good trip to Washington?” she asked quietly.

“It was…”

“No,” Bucky interrupted him petulantly. “No talking. Just lying down.”

Steve smirked. “Are you enjoying the sun, Buck?”

“It’s nice, warm.” Bucky snuggled even closer to him, his eyes still closed, one arm dragging Natasha with him, as if she were a giant teddy bear. “Like it when it’s warm.” He sounded like he was ready to drop off to sleep at any moment.

“I know you do.”

They lay quietly, Bucky and Natasha both relaxed now, their bodies resting heavily against Steve’s. The journey was catching up on him now and along with the sun’s rays penetrating his skin and leaving him dazed and boneless, he soon slipped into sleep beside them, warm and content.


End file.
